"Drivers are tiny voltage spike protectors."
Nope. They could have a spike protector in them, although I've never heard of that. An LED "driver" module converts raw power from whatever source into tightly regulated DC power for the LED. It regulates both amperage and voltage to prevent damage to the LED from either. A conventional 3-pin regulator set up in amperage regulation mode usually will suffice.
Spike protection can be done easily by inexpensive components like zener diodes added to the power lines on a system basis, not necessarily per LED.
"LEDs are no where near as bad as those 40 dollar 1157 substitute jobs "
Many of the 1157 substitutes include a regulator and literally dozens of LED chips carefully mounted in a small assembly intended to provide even 360-degree illumination. Some include reverse polarity protection as well. They're very different from one or two raw LEDs and while they're expensive, you'd be hard pressed to make the same thing for a lower cost.
They're not just shiny lights.
High brightness "white" LEDs, from prime vendors and one production batch, typically can range 16-fold in brightness, and you pay dearly if you want them all from the same batch (i.e. 10cp, 20cp, 40cp) instead of the random run of varying brightness and colors. Typically, vendors sort and sell at least nine different batches, all very visibly different, from any production run. Other colors may be more uniform, but on the brightest LEDs, they still come in very different brightnesses.
Sometimes cheap stuff from China is all you need, like truck and bus marker lights where a $300 light would be stolen off the back of the bus, while a $25 light that burns out half the LEDs is still "legal enough" and can be replaced at the annual depot maintenance anyhow.
Cabin lights? Cheap enough and easy enough to replace every year. masthead lights aloft? Yeah, you might want the better ones that will last 100,000 hours and still pass muster. With proper regulation and drivers and voltage spike protection, and that won't create an RFI problem, either.
